First Days Back

Is it already Wednesday?  I forgot how quickly the days fly by here at school.  That's actually one of the reasons I became a teacher - I hate the dreaded 10am hour, and if it is at all possible for it to pass without me knowing it, I am in the clear.  When I was a researcher/grad student.  The trek from 9:59 am to 11:00 am took four hours.  I'd swear it did, at least.

This year has started out much more pleasantly than years past.  My first year, I was nervous and didn't know what to expect.  My second year, I was scared because I did know what to expect.  This third year, I ran as efficiently and quickly as possible through new school year business and got straight to content.  I know my content.  That part is easy.  So I just didn't bother spending (too much) time on things that did not, in the end, help the students.

They were, though, a bit surprised when they had to take notes and do worksheets on the first day.  I imagine they'll be surprised when they find out we're doing a lab today on the second day.  And I have a quiz for them on the third class.

I'm actually starting to like this teaching thing.  While I was skeptical at first, I think this might be it for me.  I've never had a job longer than this.  That's not to say I wasn't welcome at other places - I always left on good terms.  So maybe, just maybe, I've found my calling.

Come On, Fall!

I love fall.  Autumn.  The changing of the leaves.  The descent into winter. It makes me think of

baking apples

Southern Living

apple butter

Virginia Tourism

crisp air

Art by Monk

and crunchy leaves.

Chez Chiara

I love how blue the skies are in September.  I love that I can boil oranges and cinnamon sticks on the stove for warmth and smell.  I love how I can wear long sleeve t-shirts and be perfectly comfortable.  I love the local fall festival (though the quality of the festival seriously declined in the past few years).  I love listening to NPR on the weekends while cooking with the doors open - yes, I'm specific :o)  I love the link I feel in fall to years past.

Please, fall, please won't you hurry up and get here?

Road Trip

So Thursday night, *B* and I were aimlessly wandering around the county.  We had everything ready for our Indiana road trip, but we weren't planning to leave until very, very early Friday morning.  *B* got impatient, so we decided, against our better judgment, to leave Thursday night and switch off driving for the 11 hour trip.

We left at 8 pm.  We both had worked a full day and were sufficiently tired when we left.  *B* drove first, and let me sleep for a good hour and a half.  Long story short, with five or six rest stops, we got to the Indiana border at 4 am.

I had thought about this problem, but didn't really take it in.  We can't check into our hotel until 2 pm.  It's 4 am and we have only 3 more hours to drive.  We're big fans of checking states off of our lists, so we decided to check out Michigan on the way.  Rather than taking the toll road, we took a little parallel road across the whole of Michigan.  (Toll roads, by the way, cost us $40 each way.  It's insane what one has to do to cut an hour and a half of driving off the trip.)  Route 12 through Michigan was very pretty, though, and there was rather nice architecture on the way.  By the time we got out of Michigan, it was about 8 am.  We had been driving for 12 hours on very little sleep.

So, we decided, we're very close to Chicago, we should hit Illinois while we're here.  We drove forever on our way around Lake Michigan.  We learned a few things:

1)  Most of the towns on Lake Michigan are dead or dying.
2)  There's a nuclear power plant in a national seashore.

3)  There are some rather scary areas on Route 12.  We drove and drove until we hit Chicago.  It was not this Chicago:

It was this Chicago:

It was dirty, scary, and congested.  I saw a car fire.  I will never go back to Southside Chicago again.

After fleeing the city, it was 11am, and we decided to plead with the woman at the hotel for mercy.  Thankfully, they let us check in early.  We both passed out.  We had driven 15 hours (including stops) across six states - we deserved a bit of a break.

The next day, a good friend of mine got married.  *B* officiated, and it was lovely.  It was a Renaissance wedding, so everyone was dressed up.  The ceremony was held in a field in an orchard, and the reception was in a gorgeous old barn.  With the exception of watching my ex slobbering all over the girl he left me for over the course of the 6 hour party, it was a good time.

The next morning, we woke up at 3 am Indiana time to go home.  Again, we switched off, but I did not get nearly as much sleep.  The one time I slept in the car, I had nightmares that I was falling and couldn't slow down.  It might have been that I was traveling at 70 mph.  Who knows.  We got home at 6 pm our time, so we drove (and stopped) for 13 hours.  Much better that time around.  Either way, I'm pooped.  Today is the first day of school, and I nearly fell asleep the whole way to work.  But more on that later.

The best part of driving to Indiana rather than flying: *B* read me The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams while I drove almost the whole way home.  He even did voices to some extent.  It was awesome!

One More Day

I have one more day until we drive semi-cross country to attend a friend's Renaissance wedding.  I'm excited!  We're leaving bright and early tomorrow morning.  I'll post about it Sunday or so.

I have one more work day until kids come for class.  I have my papers copied and my lessons planned.  I'm hoping it's an easy day!

Check in later for more developments :o)

Back to School

Tomorrow is my first day back to work.  Summer has absolutely flown by.  I know that once school starts, the wedding will be on top of me before I know it.  I tried to get everything done this summer that I could.  Between working my full time teaching job (though before the kids come), working my night time tutoring job (my last week), and driving for 24 hours in a three day time frame for a friend's wedding this weekend, I'm so nervous for just this week!  I know I'll survive, but how will I do it!?  I need to focus in, one day at a time, and just hope for the best.  It doesn't help that I've had a sudden attack of super low self-esteem.  I just keep telling myself that I will look fine at the wedding.  In two weeks, I've lost just over 5 lbs - a very healthy loss.  Four months ~ 16 weeks ~ 20 pound loss possible.  We shall see.

Breathe...

Oh the Nostalgia!

When I stopped by my dad's house to pick up my knitting implements last weekend, he convinced me to take a few boxes with me.  I've got tons left there, but slowly it will move over here.  One of the boxes was a load of books.  And in that box was my American Girl collection.  I was never allowed to have a doll (they were $80 at the time, $95-115 now).  But I loved Samantha, probably because she looked most like me.  So what did I do?  I reread the series:
 

 Then I found the craft set.  I loved the cookbook and plan to cook out of it again.  I have two sets of the paper dolls because I was given one before I was given the set.

 Some of the outfits in one set aren't even cut out!

 But the ones that were still fit perfectly.  I even found her hairbow, dog, and tea set in the accessories envelope.

The Samantha set is the most complete that I have.  I have the books and paper dolls of Felicity, Kirsten, and Molly.  I have the books of Addy, but they were published in sets of three rather than one set of six.

Is it bad that at 24 years old, I'm actually considering buying the other sets of books and the cookbooks that go with them?

I Have No More Kittens :o(

My little baby has grown up so fast!  Evie, my Christmas present, is ONE year old today!

 

 

She will not be having any part of picture taking though.

 

Maybe just one.